Jed Emert scored the Sportsman win at Smoky Mountain on Friday night
Along with Friday night’s qualifying and heat races for the $15,000-to-win Spring Nationals Super Late Model race(to be held on Saturday afternoon), the Smoky Mountain Speedway also staged a $2,000-to-win Sportsman Late Models feature. Jed Emert claimed the big first prize by turning in a dominating performance in the main event for this class.
Emert was fastest in qualifying among the 23 cars to sign in for competition. With the top-8 from the time-trial session locked into their feature starting positions, it would be Jaylon Shannon, Michael Courtney, Christian Hanger, Heath Alvey, Jordon Horton, Zach Shannon and Warren McMahan who would follow the fast qualifier.
Kyle Courtney and Kevin Lewis won the two B-main races used to set the remainder of the starting grid for the main event.
Emert immediately took the lead when the green flag waved over the 25-lap feature followed by Michael Courtney, Horton, Alvey and the slow starting Shannon. However, Shannon would quickly begin to regain his place as he passed by Alvey on the second lap to take fourth. At the same time, Shannon and Hanger engaged in a battle for position just outside the top-5.
A caution for a multi-car crash near the tail of the field slowed the action briefly. The restart provided the only real challenge that Emert would face when Michael Courtney dove to his inside through turns one and two. But Emert would fight back Courtney’s bid and would again pull out to an advantage of several car lengths.
The third running Horton suffered a mechanical failure on the eighth circuit as Hanger moved in to threaten Alvey’s hold on fourth. Hanger was eventually repelled by Alvey and then fell back into a fight for fifth with Kyle Courtney.
Jaylon Shannon(22) and Michael Courtney battle
Emert encountered slower traffic at the halfway point of the race but was nonetheless able to keep his pursuers comfortable in arrears. In the meantime, Hanger finally took fourth away from Alvey as Shannon seized the runner-up spot from Michael Courtney.
Hanger would find trouble, however, on lap 22 when his third place car bounced off the wall in the fourth turn. The final caution the race, resulting from Hanger’s wall contact, would give the field one last shot at the leader but he proved to be up to the challenge.
At the finish line, it was Jed Emert taking the win ahead of Jaylon Shannon, Michael Courtney, Kyle Courtney, Heath Alvey and Zach Shannon.
